Butthurt

1998catchphraseclassic

Butthurt is online slang for a strongly negative or overly emotional reaction to a minor slight or insult. One of the earliest surviving online uses appeared in a 1998 guestbook comment on H.R. Giger's website, and the word grew through Urban Dictionary, gaming chat, and image macros before hitting mainstream news during a 2012 Anonymous protest in Arizona.

slang memesinternet slang origin memesurban dictionary memesdismissal memesearly internet memes

Overview

Butthurt is online slang for a strongly negative or overly emotional reaction to a minor slight, insult, or unfavorable situation4. The word gets thrown around in gaming chat, forums, and comment threads as a light jab at anyone perceived to be sulking, and typical descriptions call out hostile replies, going silent after a joke, and visible shame4.

The tone is mocking rather than sympathetic. Calling someone butthurt is basically saying their reaction outweighs whatever actually happened. The word also grew its own small visual vocabulary, including the Butthurt Face emoticon, the Butthurt Dweller image macro series, and a related term 'Buttfrustrated' used for extreme cases3.

How It Spread

Urban Dictionary added the term in December 2001, and dozens of user definitions piled up over the following years under variants like 'butt-hurt' and 'butt hurt'4. The site named butthurt its Urban Word of the Day on May 2, 20064. By that point YouTube clips using the word had been circulating for over a year, mostly mocking rage-quitters and sore losers in online gaming, and by the early 2010s Tumblr macros tagged '#butthurt' and a Facebook group called 'U Butthurt Bro?' had made it a staple mocking response3.

The term hit mainstream news in April 2012, when the Twitter account @YourAnonNews urged Arizonans to fax the printable 'Butthurt Report Form' to Governor Jan Brewer in protest of House Bill 2549, a proposed law criminalizing digital speech meant to 'annoy, offend, terrify, threaten, intimidate, or harass' others1. Brewer signed the bill on May 14, 2012, but only after 'annoy' and 'offend' were stripped from the text1.

How to Use This Meme

People drop butthurt into a reply when someone appears to be overreacting to a joke or mild criticism, typically framed as 'u butthurt?' or 'someone's butthurt'4. The Butthurt Report Form popularized during the 2012 Arizona protest works as a mocking checklist, listing options like 'Someone made a blog post that I didn't agree with' for the target to check off1.

Frequently Asked Questions

Butthurt

1998catchphraseclassic

Butthurt is online slang for a strongly negative or overly emotional reaction to a minor slight or insult. One of the earliest surviving online uses appeared in a 1998 guestbook comment on H.R. Giger's website, and the word grew through Urban Dictionary, gaming chat, and image macros before hitting mainstream news during a 2012 Anonymous protest in Arizona.

slang memes internet slang origin memes urban dictionary memes dismissal memes early internet memes

Overview

Butthurt is online slang for a strongly negative or overly emotional reaction to a minor slight, insult, or unfavorable situation4. The word gets thrown around in gaming chat, forums, and comment threads as a light jab at anyone perceived to be sulking, and typical descriptions call out hostile replies, going silent after a joke, and visible shame4.

The tone is mocking rather than sympathetic. Calling someone butthurt is basically saying their reaction outweighs whatever actually happened. The word also grew its own small visual vocabulary, including the Butthurt Face emoticon, the Butthurt Dweller image macro series, and a related term 'Buttfrustrated' used for extreme cases3.

How It Spread

Urban Dictionary added the term in December 2001, and dozens of user definitions piled up over the following years under variants like 'butt-hurt' and 'butt hurt'4. The site named butthurt its Urban Word of the Day on May 2, 20064. By that point YouTube clips using the word had been circulating for over a year, mostly mocking rage-quitters and sore losers in online gaming, and by the early 2010s Tumblr macros tagged '#butthurt' and a Facebook group called 'U Butthurt Bro?' had made it a staple mocking response3.

The term hit mainstream news in April 2012, when the Twitter account @YourAnonNews urged Arizonans to fax the printable 'Butthurt Report Form' to Governor Jan Brewer in protest of House Bill 2549, a proposed law criminalizing digital speech meant to 'annoy, offend, terrify, threaten, intimidate, or harass' others1. Brewer signed the bill on May 14, 2012, but only after 'annoy' and 'offend' were stripped from the text1.

How to Use This Meme

People drop butthurt into a reply when someone appears to be overreacting to a joke or mild criticism, typically framed as 'u butthurt?' or 'someone's butthurt'4. The Butthurt Report Form popularized during the 2012 Arizona protest works as a mocking checklist, listing options like 'Someone made a blog post that I didn't agree with' for the target to check off1.

Frequently Asked Questions